This is a collection of Rich's "Pastor to Person" articles for Calvary Chapel of Fullerton

Slow Down

I would imagine that at some point he thought he had hit the jackpot. I don’t know how much gray had begun to creep into his beard, or how much hair he had left on top of his head, but he was not considered a young man. One evening, after a hard day’s work in the fields, his sleep was disturbed, and he realized that something had nudged his feet. A young gal was lying at his feet. Startled, he asked her why she was there. If he heard her correctly, he had won the lottery and she wanted to marry him! Wow! A beautiful young gal, a dark night, and a lonely old man. In today’s world, this would be the beginning of a movie about passion, and not one rated “G”. But that’s not how Boaz operated. He was a man of integrity. Boaz told Ruth, “Now it is true that I am a close relative; however, there is a relative closer than I” (Ruth 3:12).

What was Boaz doing? If I understand correctly, Boaz wasn’t turning Ruth down. He was simply choosing to “wait”. I think Boaz liked the idea of marryingRuth. Ithink that Boaz liked the idea so much, he wanted to make sure he did things right. He didn’t want to be looking over his shoulder to see if someone challenged his integrity. Sometimes we tend to jump the gun and rush what ought to be taken slowly. We tell ourselves we don’t want to miss the opportunity, and so we take shortcuts. Beloved, God honors integrity. Take your time to do things right.